Traditional water-based coloring compositions that are used for dying, staining, or pigmenting an article of manufacture can result in a large volume of waste water. Often, the waste water can be contaminated with highly toxic chemicals that are byproducts from the coloring process and that can be difficult and expensive to separate from the water. However, the contaminated water should not be introduced back into the environment without removing the coloring, and as a result an expensive coloring process may be required.
Supercritical carbon dioxide has been used in coloring processes because it can dissolve or absorb the colorant for application to an article of manufacture. However, carbon dioxide can also react with various functional moieties on either the colorant or the article of manufacture, such as textiles, and impair the ability of the colorant to attach to the article of manufacture. As a result, the colorant is likely to be easily removed from the article, such as during cleaning, so that the color of the article dulls over time.
As such, there is a continued need for improved coloring compositions that can be used to provide color to articles of manufacture, such as textiles, polymer parts, metal parts, ceramic parts, or others.